3/8/2020 - Astrophel wrote:

This began with lots of subtlety and was balanced and delicious from the get go. With time, the salinity on the finish increased and the style of Raveneau's Butteaux was on full display with just a hint of fennel and some waxiness true to form. No aspect of this wine was particularly poignant; instead, this was just a really well-rounded and tasty bottle. Drinking super well right now. XXX+

1/24/2020 - Astrophel wrote:

Massive and delicious. Everything is tell-tale for d'Auvenay here, from the buttered popcorn nose to the driving finish full of saline, acid, and mineral driven power. It can be no other. Sure, maybe the '99 is better because it's more delineated, but on it's own I challenge you to say that this wine is not everything it's supposed to be. Totally crushing it. XXX+++

7/16/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Tasted twice in last few months and second bottle wasn't showing at all like the first, so this note discounts that second bottle and is indicative only of the first, perfect bottle. The perfume immediately told me it was DRC; no one else can produce that nose. The aroma was an attack of relentless stems and dark richebourg spice - it was a deluge of purple and the wine did great justice to the brooding terroir that is Richebourg. Just such an insanely powerful nose that I could smell all day. This is a nose with which you fall in love. The palate had waves of delicious, compacted, blue and black fruit that seemingly went on forever. A magnificent wine. Not at all backwards or closed. Just sensational. XXXX.

1/18/2020 - Astrophel wrote:

Drank 1 night after the '05 Clos de la Mouchere because I'm now obsessed with understanding Boillot and several of his terroir. Hallmark of this wine is the Boillot style of spicy green, with some steeliness and phenolic bitterness, very true to the terroir of Perrieres. The other most pronounced feature is an incredible sweetness on the finish. By comparison to the clos de la mouchere from the same vintage, this does not have even close to the size, weight and power; it's also not nearly as youthful and is probably at its apogee or just past. On opening you know immediately that this is puligny, with that classic butterscotch, whereas the Clos was a little bit more secretive about Puligny vs. Meursault. I think it makes sense that this is Perrieres and that the Clos is his hallmark wine given its more intense weight and depth. XXX+

1/17/2020 - Astrophel wrote:

Rich and concentrated. Color perfect. Great, uplifting finish full of mineral and acidity. T thought it was a 14; that's how fresh and youthful it is. Really powerful, showing the concentration of both the vintage and the plot (supposedly known for a more honeyed style of wine). You can tell that Boillot thinks the terroir here is stronger than the Perrieres and can handle a much more aggressive treatment during vinification. All in all, a really good, rich and powerful wine that needs more time to fully integrate but is excellent. XXX++

10/10/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Chevy and Monty Dinner in HK. Well, FUCK. ME. Blind. One of the wines of the night and a perfect wine. Smelling this was pure heaven. Nutty, aged, rich, creamy, cheesy and showing such magnificent spice that's full of classic Montrachet stoniness; this is the white burgundy that I live for! Just magnificent. So clean despite the weight and age. Legit, the reason to drink wine. XXXX

5/9/2018 - Astrophel wrote:

This was one of the better wines of the evening. K loves it and told me he has incredibly consistent notes on this wine throughout the years. It's very fresh and energetic, with lovely acidity and tremendous terroir specificity for GE, but it's showing age for sure, with totally mature, tertiary notes. The purity here is crazy, and the delicious, really almost fruit roll-up like fruit was just fantastic! What really did it for me was the beautiful fruit; the purity is near startling, although not exactly surprising given it's The Domaine and '78. One of the wines of the flight and of the evening. XXX++

10/1/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Open and lovely. Night and day compared with the tightly coiled, austere '02. This wine has a ton of richness and weight; it's super powerful. But it's also marked by real balance. Clean and gorgeous. I'd drink this all day. XXX+++

11/1/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Painfully intense. This is in an austere spot, driven by tremendous acidity and mineral. With a few hours in glass, the wine begins to round out and put on weight, showing how truly young this is right now and how much more time it needs to come together. A very good wine, but tough for me to rate given how far away we are from its apogee. I would drink the '00 right now as it offers way more drinking pleasure. XXX(???)

9/9/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Given that it's so young, this really deserves a good 8hrs of air prior to drinking, but on this occasion it was only given 2. With that said, this is a pretty spectacular wine. Not shut down, angry or tight, just young. The pure power and concentration is remarkable with a solid, massive core of gorgeous red fruit and spice. There's also that classic sweetness running throughout. Notably, at least for me, I didn't particularly get a suffusion of stems, as that classic DRC trait was circling in harmony with the other facets of the wine. Balanced and yet magnificently powerful. This will be a great wine to track over the next several decades. I'm giving it 4 stars both because of how technically perfect it is now and also because of the potential here, which is demarcated by the question mark. XXXX(?)

6/11/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

First bottle was good, with some funk that blew off and good fruit coming through, but second bottle had a touch of VA and the funk wouldn't leave. Fully tertiary, but the fruit is really hanging in and there's good acid. Quite liked, if not a special wine. XX+++

6/11/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Opened 4+hrs in advance, a great wine. Open and lush, beautiful, pure red fruit. So fourrier in style. Great earth and gev characteristics. Really fresh. Delicious now and will continue to last, but no need to wait forever. Interestingly, still noticed just a hint of reduction on the nose. XXX

6/11/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Lucky that I got to have this only a few days after having the '06 CSD, but this wine had none of the depth, inkiness, or fruit that the CSD had. We all thought there was a touch of something astringent, like the acid was out of whack with the rest of the wine. Like the mineral turned bitter. Not a great wine and I still have no idea what to make of '06 reds except to say they're awkward. X

6/10/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Paris '19. Fucking smoking bottle. Blinded and after it had a few mins to open, I called '96. It was an awesome wine. Clean, perfect, really getting close to ideal bottle for me. Only got better with a few hrs of air time. XXXX

6/10/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Paris '19 in 375ml. Took 2hrs to come alive, but when it did, the age blew off (age was pronounced upon opening, esp on the nose) and it became an incredible bottle of wine. Spicy, creamy, rich, and awesome. A truly lovely bottle of wine. XXX+

6/10/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

This is one of the only perfect bottles of my life. Tasted over 4hrs, not opened well in advance or double decanted. Iron fist in a velvet glove, sure, but so much more. The depth and majesty here is nothing short of stupendous. Fruit, spice, earth: Everything is all wrapped in spherical perfection and harmony. The world stops spinning and when you look down, the only thing that exists is this particular glass. Unclear why it's so open now and whether it will remain so. XXXX

6/10/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

100% '08 on the nose in that it's just wide open and naked with the most gorgeous fruit flying out in spades. Fuck, I love this fruit so much. Purity of fruit, with a hint of spice on the front of the palate, but this wine is really all about delicate, airy, gossamer and high toned red, chambolle fruit. Good, if not very good only because it lacks stuffing and the finish is a touch short. XXX

6/10/2019 - Astrophel wrote:

Blind, I called '09 Rav. Shows very open bc of heat of the vintage, which is quite nice. Clean, salty on nose. Touch of richness on both nose and palate. Good spice on finish. Very good. XXX